Present technologies produce boron alloys by means of smelting processes that utilize either carbon or aluminum as the reducing agent for boron anhydride, B.sub.2 O.sub.3. The rapidly expanding field is essentially associated with the development of amorphous metals having very low magnetic losses, with typical alloys being Fe--Ni--B and Fe--B--Si. These alloys find their applications in motor and transformer cores and the electronic industry in general.
The standard smelting processes for producing ferroboron alloys seem to have in common a low boron yield that perhaps reflects the relatively high cost of producing the alloy.
The normal starting material for producing ferroboron is boric acid which, upon dehydration, converts to boron anhydride, B.sub.2 O.sub.3. This boron oxide is very stable and can be reduced to metallic boron with carbon, aluminum or magnesium.
Smelting is the general approach to ferroboron production, but process yields are only around 40%. Besides the yield drawback of present smelting practices, carbon reduction produces ferroboron containing approximately 2% carbon; aluminum reduction produces ferroboron containing approximately 1.5% aluminum; and magnesium reduction has inherent high magnesium losses and slag-metal separation difficulties.